System and method for exchanging information with a relationship management system

ABSTRACT

A method and system for exchanging information with a Relationship Management system that includes a connection unit to bridge first and second communications connections and capture information associated with the first and second communications connections. An interface unit is then used to receive communications connection information from the connection unit and deliver select portions of the communications connection information in a select format to the Relationship Management system.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No.10/933,116, filed Sep. 2, 2004, the entire teachings of which areincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Almost any business system that even remotely interfaces with a customermay be considered part of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM)system. CRM systems, however, typically focus on but not limited to fourmain areas: 1) Sales, 2) Customer Service and Support, 3) MarketingAutomation, and 4) Collections Management.

The sales component, or Sales Force Automation (SFA) system, usuallyprovides support for retail sales, field sales, call-center sales, andE-commerce. The support may include the collection or distribution ofsales information from and to brokers, distributors, and agents. TheCustomer Service and Support component provides service techniciancontacts, call-center interactions, and Internet-based contacts withcustomers. Marketing Automation involves analyzing and automatingmarketing processes that ultimately impact customer relations. Forexample, a campaign management system may be used to design marketingcampaigns and then track the impact of the campaign on certain groups ortypes of customers.

Traditionally, CRM systems have been premises-based systems requiring abusiness to outlay considerable capital to implement and maintain.Recently, with the advent of the Internet, Hosted CRM applications thatreside on remote Internet-connected servers have emerged that allowbusinesses to implement CRM on an on-demand basis. Such Hosted CRMsystems have reduced the cost associated with implementing CRM byeliminating the significant capital outlay required by a business whileonly charging for the services used by a business client of the hostedCRM.

The effectiveness of a CRM system is dependent on the system's abilityto collect, maintain, and disseminate important customer informationfrom, for, and to various entities of a business. A particularlychallenging issue involves maintaining relevant and up-to-dateinformation for agents using a Sales Force Automation system.

SUMMARY

Because it is critically important to prevent customer relevantinformation from becoming stale, a CRM system, whether premises-based orhosted, must have an effective and convenient mechanism for collectingand distributing important customer information. Unfortunately, existingCRM systems require sales agents to input customer data into the CRMsystem using remote interfaces, usually after one or more contacts aremade with customers or potential customers. Agents often find itinconvenient or impractical to collect information about contacts over aperiod of time and then enter such information sporadically using apersonal computer (PC), wireless device, or personal digital assistant(PDA). After a period of time, an agent's enthusiasm and diligence inupdating the CRM system often diminishes to the point where the agent nolonger updates the system, resulting in stale and compromised datawithin the CRM system. Furthermore, unscrupulous agents may withholdcertain contact information from the system to protect their personalcustomer base.

The present invention provides certain improvements and advantages byautomatically and conveniently capturing agent and contact informationderived from the communications connection between an agent and contactand exchanging the information with a CRM system. The principles of thepresent invention can be applied to any Relationship Management (RM)system, including CRM systems for businesses in a commercialenvironment.

In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method and systemfor exchanging information with a RM system. The RM system may include aconnection unit that bridges first and second communications connectionsand captures information associated with the first and secondcommunications connections. The communications connections may becircuit-switched such as standard voice telecommunications calls orpacket-switched such as Internet Protocol(IP) or Voice-over-IP (VOIP)traffic. Electronic mail (e-mail), instant messaging, short messageservice (SMS), or multimedia messaging service (MMS) traffic exchangedbetween an origin and destination may also be considered as examples ofa communications connection. Bridging may be considered the process oflinking at least two independent connections to form one connectionshared by all of the original connections.

The first communications connection may be with an origin associatedwith a client agent. The connection unit may verify the identity of theagent to ensure proper tracking of the agent's activities. The secondcommunications connection may be with a destination associated with acontact.

An interface unit receives communications connection information fromthe connection unit and delivers select portions of the communicationsconnection information in a select format to a RM system. The origin anddestination may be any type of communications device such as atelephone, cellular telephone, personal digital assistance, pager,computer, client interface, remote computer terminal, and the like. Theconnection unit may be a telecommunications switch, an Interactive VoiceResponse application, a predictive dialer server, a distributedpredictive dialer system, an electronic mail server, an InstantMessaging server, a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) server, and aMultimedia Messaging server.

The captured communications connection information may includes any oneor combination of an origin identifier, destination identifier, agentidentifier, contact identifier, agent name, agent address, contact name,contact address, at least one agent command, at least one contactcommand, and contact status. The commands may be user-inputted such asdialed digits, pointer clicks of a computer mouse, or voice commands. Tocapture the dialed digits, the connection unit may use adual-tone-multi-frequency (DTMF) detector. The identifier may be adevice address such as a telephone number, IP address, or electronicmail address. Otherwise, the identifier may be the agent's name, ausername, or identification number.

Portions of the captured information may be selected for delivery to theRM system based on client-specific preferences. Furthermore, theconnection unit may capture the communications information before thecommunications are established with the destination, during establishedcommunications with the destination, or after communications have endedwith the destination. The interface unit may format the communicationsconnection information into a data string message before delivery to aRM system.

When delivering a network message to the RM, the interface unit mayaccess a web queue service using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) witheXtensible Markup Language (XML) data elements to schedule the messagedelivery over an IP network. Also, the RM may access and use a listenerunit to receive the message. The listener unit preferably monitors an IPnetwork and captures communications connection information sent directlyor indirectly from the connection unit. Once a message is captured, thelistener unit may further convert the communications connectioninformation into a format required by its associated RM system.

An interface unit may support and deliver select communicationsconnection information to multiple RM systems such that the deliveredcommunications information is selected to satisfy the requirements ofeach RM system. Furthermore, each RM may be associated with a distinctclient with distinct requirements, or a group of clients each withdistinct requirements found in 3rd party call centers. Regardless ofwhether the RM system is a premises-based or remotely hosted, the RMsystem may have one or more remote interfaces that enable one or moremembers of a client's organization to view or modify select informationwithin the RM system. An origin used to facilitate communicationsbetween an agent and contact may also include a remote interface to theRM system.

An agent may be a sales agent, customer service representative,marketing agent, public service representative, or some other member ofa client's organization. A contact may be a prospective customer, acustomer, an entity related to the client, an entity to which the clienthas an obligation, or any person that the agent contacts.

The interface unit may query an identifier reverse look-up table orother networked systems to retrieve name, address or any other relevantinformation, which can be configured on a client-by-client basisassociated with the identity of a communications device. Also, theinterface unit may receive information from a RM system to configure theinterface unit and any other system connected to the interface unit. Theinformation derived from the communications connection is preferablydelivered in real-time or near real-time to the RM system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of theinvention will be apparent from the following more particulardescription of preferred embodiments of the invention, as illustrated inthe accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer tothe same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are notnecessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustratingthe principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a system for exchanginginformation from a telecommunications switch and predictive dialer witha relationship management system in accordance with principals of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a system for exchanginginformation from multiple connection units connected to a data networkwith a relationship management system;

FIG. 3 is a exemplary diagram of a data string of information.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an interface unit interfacing with multipletypes of connection units;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of multiple interface units interfacing with arelationship management system;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a procedure for exchanging information with arelationship management system; and

FIG. 7 is an exemplary pick list of RM commands.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One embodiment of the present invention is a system for exchanginginformation with a relationship management (RM) system. FIG. 1 shows anexample of a RM information exchange system 100 interconnected withtelecommunications network 102, i.e., the Public SwitchedTelecommunications Network (PSTN), that illustrates principles of thepresent invention. It is understood, however, that the present inventionapplies to any communications system and, more particularly, toexchanging information with an RM 108 that is derived from acommunications connection between an origin 104 and destination 106therein.

A RM in a commercial environment may be a CRM that handles interactionsbetween agents of a commercial business and prospective or currentcustomers. One component of the CRM system is typically the SFA systemthat enables efficient management of the sales force of a business bymaintaining records of customer contacts to enhance sales forceproductivity. A premises-based CRM may be an application residing withina computer system such as, for example, a SUN Fire server or the like,or within a cluster of computer servers or multiple computer serversdistributed throughout an enterprise network. A hosted CRM may resideremotely within a CRM vendor's computer network, but be connected tocomputers, workstations, and interfaces of a client business via theInternet or some other data network. A hosted CRM can be a softwareapplication residing within a computer server, for example, a SUN Fireor Netra-family server or the like, or multiple computer serversconfigured such as a web interface to act as a single computer. The sizeof the CRM hardware platform is typically dependent on the capacityneeds of the CRM which is not particularly relevant to the principals ofthis invention.

Typical premises-based CRM products include the E.Piphany E.6 CRM usingthe Java 2 software platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), the Remedy CRMproduct set, and the Onyx Enterprise CRM. Typical hosted CRM solutionsinclude Software.com's CRM services and Siebal's CRM OnDemand services.

Before exchanging information with an RM 108 such as RM 108-1,connection unit 110-1, a telecommunications switch using InteractiveVoice Response (IVR) 112, establishes a first communications connectionwith an origin 104 such as origin 104-1. The first communicationsconnection with origin 104-1 within local exchange carrier (LEC) network140 is typically initiated by and associated with a client agent whoseidentity may be verified by connection unit 110-1. An agent may be asales, customer service, marketing, or public service representative, orsimply a member of a client's organization. The identity may preferablybe verified by confirming a passcode or password entered by an agent inresponse to a prompt when the first communications connection isestablished. IVR 112 typically provides the prompting of an agent andthe detection of responses from an agent that may be in the form of, forexample, dual-tone-multiple-frequency (DTMF) tones generated by origin104-1 as the agent presses keys on the keypad or keyboard of origin104-1. If the agent fails to enter the proper password after a number ofattempts, the first communications connection may be disconnected.

Other forms of verification and authentication may be employed. Someagent access devices may possess unique user IDs that provide instantverification and authentication upon connection. For example, cellularphones possess a unique 10-digit number called an Automatic NumberIdentification (ANI). Because the ANI is a unique identifier to aparticular device, it may be used to automatically authenticate thecommunication with the RM 108.

Connection unit 110-1 may also forward the agent password and otherinformation to interface unit 114-1 or control unit 116, either of whichmay query database 118-1 to check the agent password. Interface unit 114may be a software application residing within a hardware platform suchas a SUN Fire server or the like. In certain embodiments, interface unit114 may also function as a control unit 116. Furthermore, eitherinterface unit 114-1 or control unit 116 may remotely access acentrally-located database 118 such as database 118-3 via an internal orprivate or virtual private network 142. In addition to passwordinformation, database 118 may contain a reverse lookup table thatassociates device identifier information with a particular contactperson or business. Thus, interface unit 114 may be capable of queryingan identifier reverse look-up table in database 118 or through theservice delivery network 142 to retrieve name, address or any otherrelevant information associated with the identity of a communicationsdevice.

After successful verification of the agent identity, connection unit110-1 may then establish a second communications connection with adestination 106 such as destination 106-3. The second communicationsconnection with destination 106-3 is typically associated with acontact. A contact may be any one or combination of a prospectivecustomer, existing customer, entity related to the client, entity towhich the client has an obligation, or other person. Once the first andsecond communications connections are established, connection unit 110-1then bridges the first and second communications connections toeffectively establish a communications connection between origin 104-1and destination 106-3.

At any time before, during, or after the first and second communicationsconnections are bridged together, connection unit 110-1 may captureinformation associated with the first and second communicationsconnections. Once captured, interface unit 114-1 receives thecommunications connection information from connection unit 110-1 anddelivers select portions of the communications connection information ina select format to a RM 108 such as RM 108-1 over an IP based networkutilizing some messaged based protocol.

The origin 104 and destination 106 are typically communications devicessuch as telephones, cellular telephones, personal digital assistances,pagers, computers, server client interfaces, or remote computerterminals. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, connection unit 110 may be any oneof a telecommunications switch 110-1, an Interactive Voice Response(IVR) application 112 within a telecommunications switch 110-1, apredictive dialer server 110-2, a distributed predictive dialer system,an electronic mail server 110-3 or 110-4, an Instant Messaging server(IMS) 110-10, a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) server 110-8, a ShortMessage server (SMS) 110-5, a Multimedia Messaging server (MMS) 110-9,or a VoIP server 110-7.

The captured communications connection information may include any oneor combination of an origin identifier, destination identifier, agentidentifier, contact identifier, agent name, agent address, contact name,contact address, at least one agent command, at least one contactcommand, contact status, contact duration, communication control data,or electronic mail header and content data. When the connection unit 110is an electronic mail server such as connection unit 110-3 of FIG. 2,certain information may be captured from the header or contents of anelectronic mail message sent from origin 104-10, an electronic mailclient within Internet Service Provider (ISP) network 200. Connectionunit 110-3 may alternatively forward certain agent electronic mailmessages to another connection unit 110-4 where message information maybe captured before the electronic mail message is forwarded to, forexample, another connection unit 110-6, from which destination 106-4, anelectronic mail client of a contact using ISP network 202, eventuallyretrieves the electronic mail message. Identification, control, andcontent information may be captured from other types of electronicmessages such as SMS messages by connection unit 110-5, MMS messages byconnection unit 110-9, SIP messages by connection unit 110-8, and VoIPmessages and communications by connection unit 110-7.

After certain information is captured, a portion of the capturedinformation may be selected to be delivered to RM 108-1 based onclient-specific preferences. The captured commands may be any one of orcombination of dialed digits, pointer clicks, and voice commands. Asstated previously, connection unit 110-1 may include IVR 112 whichtypically uses a DTMF detector to captures dialed digits from an origin104. Connection unit 110-2 may also have the ability the capture dialeddigits from an origin 104-7 using a DTMF detector.

For example, an agent may enter specific commands such as “#9” after acall to a prospective customer contact is completed to indicate that thecontact's status has changed from “prospective customer” to “existingcustomer.” Other explicit commands may be entered at any time afterestablishing the communications connection between origin 104 andconnection unit 110 until the connection is disconnected. In certainembodiments, connection unit 110 may capture explicit commands from thecontact using a destination 106.

The identifier is usually a device address including any one orcombination of a telephone number, Internet Protocol (IP) address, or anelectronic mail address. The identifier, however, may also be any one orcombination of a name, a username, and identification number. Dependingon the requirements of a particular RM 108 and the medium ofcommunications between the RM 108 and interface unit 114, interface unit114 may configure the captured communications connection informationinto various formats during delivery to an RM 108.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, interface unit 114 may format thecaptured information into a data string message for delivery to RM 108.The data string may contain information such as, but not limited to, theclient agent's name 300, the agent's identification number (ID) 302, thecontact's name 306 which may have been automatically derived from areverse look-up using the dialed digits from database 118-1, thecontact's destination identifier 308 which may be destination telephonenumber, the contact's status 310 such as “existing customer”, and othercommands 312 which could be retrieved by the service delivery network142 associated from either the agent or contact during thecommunications connection, the date 314, and the time 316. The type andamount of data within a string is may vary depending on a particularclient's requirements.

The data may be in binary, binary-coded-decimal (BCD), ASCII form,structured XML, or some other standard or proprietary format. To enablea receiver of the data string such as listener 124 or RM 108 to separatethe various data elements of the data string, a delimiter may beinserted between each element. For instance, a delimiter such as a“space” or “|” (i.e.,“pipe”) may be inserted between agent ID 302 andcontact name 306 at location 304 within the data string to enable areceiver to know where agent ID 302 ends and contact name 306 begins.Each data string may also include a header 318 and footer 320 to enablethe receiver to distinguish one data string from another. Furthermore,one or more data strings may also be encapsulated in an IP packet fordelivery over network 122 to RM 108. String data may also be formattedusing HTTP and XML for delivery to web based or hosted RM systems.

Interface unit 114 may deliver select communications information in anetwork message directly to an RM 108. Alternatively, interface unit 114may access a web queue service unit 120 to schedule the message deliveryover an IP network 122 such as the Internet. Interface unit 114 may be acomputer system or a software application residing within a computerworkstation or server such as a SUN UltraSparc workstation, or SUN fireserver, or Netra-family server, or the like.

An RM 108, such as RM 108-1 may use listener unit 124 to receive themessage. Listener unit 124 typically monitors IP network 122 andcaptures communications connection information sent directly, orindirectly via web queue service unit 120, from connection unit 114-1.Listener unit 124 may then convert the communications connectioninformation into a format required by RM 108-1. Listener unit 124 mayalso perform other functions including acting as a firewall to protectRM 108-1 from electronic intrusions or hacking. Listener unit 124 may bea computer system or a software application residing within a computerworkstation or server such as a SUN UltraSparc workstation, or SUN fireserver, or Netra-family server, or the like.

As show in FIGS. 1 and 2, interface unit 110 is typically capable ofdelivering select communications connection information to multiple RMs108 including RM 108-1 of client A, RM 108-2 of client B, and RM 108-3of client C. However, the delivered communications information may bedifferent for each client to satisfy the information gatheringrequirements for each RM 108 of each distinct client. The RM 108 may beeither a premise-based RM that resides within the clients premises or aremotely hosted RM operated by a third party vendor, providing RMservices on an on-demand basis.

The RM 108 may have one or more remote interfaces 126 that enable one ormore members of a client's organization to view or modify selectinformation within the RM 108. The RM 108 such as RM 108-1 may also haveone or more premise-based terminals 128 that also enable client memberaccess to RM 108-1. It also may be possible for an origin 104 such asorigin 104-6 to include a remote interface to RM 108-1 via connection130. Although not shown in FIG. 1, connection 130 may be a virtualconnection through any common medium such as the PSTN, Internet,wireless network or a combination the media. For example, an agent mayhave a cellular telephone that initiates a call to a contact. Thecellular telephone may also support packet data networking and a webbrowser or RM 108-1 remote interface that enables the agent to view thecollected contact information within RM 108-1.

Because the information derived from the communications connection maybe delivered in real-time or near real-time to the RM 108-1, the agentmay actually monitor the update of contact information within RM 108-1during the call to that customer contact. It may also be possible for anagent to input information or orders into RM 108-1 which could be usedby RM 108-1 to configure certain features of an interface unit 114 andany other system connected to an interface unit 114 such as database 118or a Do-Not-Call (DNC) system 204.

Referring again to FIG. 1, it is important to note that embodiments ofthe present invention enable an agent to use any origin 104, regardlessof the origin 104 geographic location, to establish a connection withconnection unit 110-1 and IVR 112 which allows the present system toautomatically and conveniently maintain up-to-date contact and otherinformation within RM 108. For example, IVR 112 may be accessed by anorigin 104 such as origin 104-4 using a “1-800” telephone number. Thus,even though origin 104-4 is located in a remote LEC network 132 usingtelecommunications switch 134, origin 104-4 establishes a communicationsconnection with connection unit 110-1 and IVR 112, enabling the RMinformation exchange system 100 to capture information from thatconnection and update the RM system automatically.

It should also be obvious to one of skill in the art that acommunications device may function as either an origin 104 ordestination 106. Thus, for example, an agent may even use destination106-1 within LEC network 136 having telecommunications switch 138 toestablish a first communications connection with connection unit 110-1and IVR 112.

Referring to FIG. 2, Data Network 206 acts as the interconnection mediumbetween the various communications elements. Data Network 206 mayinclude portions of a local area network, private network 142, an IPnetwork 122 such as the Internet, PSTN 102, and any other communicationsmedium that facilitates communications between the various elements. Asshown in FIG. 2, interface unit 114-4 need not have a dedicatedconnection to connection unit 110. In other words, connection unit 110may send captured information to interface unit 114 regardless of thenetwork or geographic location of interface unit 114.

Thus, connection unit 110-3, an e-mail server located on the premises ofa client, may send electronic mail information associated with anelectronic mail message from an origin 104-10 to a remote interface unit114-4 which would then send it on to destination 106-4. Interface unit114-4 may only extract the source and destination e-mail address fromthe e-mail or may be configured to extract certain content and headerdata based on that particular client's requirements and send thatinformation to RM 108-1.

FIG. 4, like FIG. 2, illustrates that one interface unit 110 that mayinterface with multiple connection units 114 simultaneously.Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5, each connection unit 110 mayinterface with a corresponding interface unit 114. In fact, thefunctionality of connection unit 110 and interface unit 114 may becombined into one unit. For example, an electronic mail server, actingas a connection unit 110, may include an interface unit 114 applicationto facilitate communications with an RM 108.

According to the foregoing, the present approach provides a method forexchanging information with a relationship management system. As shownin FIG. 6, the method includes bridging first and second communicationsconnections where the first communications connection is with an origin104 and the origin 104 is associated with a client agent. Also, theagent's identity may be verified by the connection unit 110 (Step 500).Furthermore, the second communications connection is typically with adestination 106 where destination 106 is associated with a contact. Themethod further includes capturing information associated with the firstand second communications connections (Step 502) and delivering selectportions of the communications connection information in a select formatto a RM 108 (Step 504).

For example, a client sales agent may attempt to sell one of theclient's products to a new customer. To reach the customer contact, theagent may use origin 104-1, e.g., a telephone, and call the “1-800”telephone number associated with IVR 112 within connection unit 110-1.Once the connection is established between connection unit 110-1 usingIVR 112 and origin 104-1, the agent may be prompted to enter a pinnumber or password. If the pin number or password is verified, IVR 112may then prompt the agent for a destination telephone number of adestination 106 such as destination 106-1 that is associated with thecustomer contact.

Connection unit 110-1 then initiates a call to destination 106-1 usingthe destination telephone number by bridging the connections with origin104-1 and 106-1 to establish a communications connection between them.

Connection unit 110-1 may also forward certain signaling informationsuch as the dialed digits to control unit 116 or interface unit 114-1 sothat a reverse look-up of the called telephone number may be performedat database 118-1 allowing the associated contact name, contact address,or any other relevant information to be delivered to interface unit114-1. At any time before, during, or after the connection isestablished between connection unit 110-1 and destination 106-1, theagent may explicitly enter designated commands to possibly describe thenature of the call, status of the contact, or other information requiredby the client's RM system. The contact, under certain conditions, mayalso have the ability to enter commands or input via the communicationsconnection between connection unit 110-1 and destination 106-1. Forinstance, the customer contact could be prompted to rate the performanceof the agent on scale of 1 through 5 by pressing the 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5key on the destination 106-1 keypad. This capability requires connectionunit 110-1 to include a DTMF detector or the like on the communicationsconnection between connection unit 110-1 and destination 106-1.

Connection unit 110-1 may either immediately forward communicationsconnection information to interface unit 114-1 or forward theinformation upon completion of a call to destination 106-1. Interfaceunit 114-1, upon receipt of the information captured from thecommunications connections with origin 104-1 and 106-1 may send thecaptured information to RM 108-1 in the form of a data string accordingto FIG. 3. Interface unit 114-1 may be configured to send certaincaptured information immediately, i.e., in real-time or near real-time,or as a periodic batch process.

Thus, if the sales agent is successful in selling a certain product tothe contact, he may, upon disconnect of the communications connectionwith destination 106-1, enter the command “#9” to indicate to the RMsystem that the contact is now an “existing customer.” The sales agentmay also enter the command “#1” to indicate a successful sale. The salesagent may further enter the command “#2” to indicate that the customerwas interested in another product. The meaning of each command andamount of available explicit commands may likely vary depending on theinformation needed by that particular client's RM system, and eachparticular client's RM system may maintain their list of explicitcommands in a so-called “pick list,” such as shown in FIG. 7.Furthermore, the commands may be entered in other forms such as voicecommands or as text commands for an origin 104 that is capable ofsupporting those modes of user agent input.

An example of one such command is a “store voice file” command wherein asales agent may provide audio commentary or notes that could be saved asa .vox file, .wav file, or other audio storage format. The RM system maythen provide a link, such as a hypertext link, that would allow a clientor their sales agent to access that audio file from a remote storagemedium such as database 118-1. The system may also convert the audiofile into a text file, via a speech to text conversation process, andthen store the voice file as a text file within the RM system 108-1. Aclient or their sales agent could then view that text file at a laterdate.

It is also important to note that an agent may maintain the samecommunications connection between the origin 104-1 and connection unit110-1 while connection unit 110-1 continuously establishes anddisconnects communications connections with new destinations 106 as theagent continuously attempts to make a sale to new contacts.

Instead of simply receiving information, RM 108-1 may also pushinformation to interface unit 114-1, control unit 116, database 118-1,or origin 104-1 depending on the capabilities of the origin 104. Suchinformation could be related to the particular communications connectionwith destination 106-1 or the information may be specific only to thesale agent. For instance, after a particular agent makes a specifiednumber of calls to contacts, RM 108-1 could send a message to origin104-1 to indicate the amount of call left for the sale agent to reachtheir calling quota for a particular period of time. RM 108-1 may alsosend updated contact address information to database 118-1.

RM 108-1 may also send a particular client's command pick list todatabase 118-1, thus providing the database with information tocorrelate and process information unique to each individual client. Thisinformation may include the number of times and the frequency that anagent entered the command #1, which depending on each RM system's picklist, may indicate either a “successful sale” or “follow up.” RM 108-1may send the pick list to the database 118-1 upon a request from client,or may periodically send the pick list to update correspondinginformation in the database 118-1. Because the information communicatedbetween the RM 108-1 and database 118-1 may flow in either direction,the RM system may be configured to allow the client to update the picklist at the RM 108-1 based on selected changes made in the database118-1.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer usable medium. For example, such acomputer usable medium may consist of a read only memory device, such asa CD ROM disk or conventional ROM devices, or a random access memory,such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette, having a computerreadable program code stored thereon.

While this invention has been particularly shown and described withreferences to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may bemade therein without departing from the scope of the inventionencompassed by the appended claims.

For example, in the foregoing description of the invention and variousembodiments thereof, the term “communications connection” is intended toinclude circuit-switched communications, packet-switched communications,communications using connectionless protocols such as IP, virtualcircuit, or other electronic communications between an origin anddestination.

1. A system for exchanging information with a relationship managementsystem, the system comprising: a connection unit that bridges first andsecond communications connections and captures information associatedwith the first and second communications connections, the firstcommunications connection with an origin, the origin associated with aclient agent, the second communications connection with a destination,the destination associated with a contact; and an interface unit thatreceives the communications connection information from the connectionunit, delivers select portions of the communications connectioninformation in a select format to a relationship management system andreceives pick list information associated with each client from therelationship management system to configure the interface unit and anyother system connected to the interface unit.
 2. The system according toclaim 1 wherein the origin and destination are each a communicationsdevice, the communications device being any one of a telephone, acellular telephone, a personal digital assistance, a pager, a computer,a client interface, a fax device, and a remote computer terminal.
 3. Thesystem according to claim 1 wherein the interface unit is configured tocorrelate communication connection information with pick listinformation.
 4. The system according to claim 1 wherein the connectionunit is any one of a telecommunications switch, an Interactive VoiceResponse application, a predictive dialer server, a distributedpredictive dialer system, an electronic mail server, an InstantMessaging server, a Session Initiated Protocol server, a voice-over-IPserver, a Short Message server, and a Multimedia Messaging server. 5.The system according to claim 1 wherein the captured communicationsconnection information includes any one or combination of an originidentifier, a destination identifier, an agent identifier, a contactidentifier, an agent name, an agent address, a contact name, a contactaddress, contact duration, at least one agent command, at least onecontact command, and contact status.
 6. The system according to claim 5wherein a portion of the captured information is selected to bedelivered to the relationship management system based on client-specificpreferences.
 7. The system according to claim 1 wherein the contact isany one or combination of a prospective customer, a customer, an entityrelated to the client, an entity to which the client has an obligation,and a person.
 8. A method for exchanging information with a relationshipmanagement system, the method comprising: bridging first and secondcommunications connections, the first communications connection with anorigin, the origin associated with a client agent, the secondcommunications connection with a destination, the destination associatedwith a contact; capturing information associated with the first andsecond communications connections; delivering select portions of thecommunications connection information in a select format to arelationship management system; receiving pick list informationassociated with each client from the relationship management system. 9.The method according to claim 8 wherein the origin and destination areeach a communications device, the communications device being any one ofa telephone, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistance, apager, a computer, a client interface, and a remote computer terminal.10. The method according to claim 8 further comprising correlatingcommunications connection information with pick list information. 11.The method according to claim 8 wherein the bridging and capturing areperformed by a connection unit, the connection unit being any one of atelecommunications switch, an Interactive Voice Response application, apredictive dialer server, a distributed predictive dialer system, anelectronic mail server, an Instant Messaging server, a Session InitiatedProtocol server, a voice-over-IP server, a Short Message server, and aMultimedia Messaging server.
 12. The method according to claim 8 whereinthe captured communications connection information includes any one orcombination of an origin identifier, destination identifier, an agentidentifier, a contact identifier, an agent name, an agent address, acontact name, a contact address, contact duration, at least one agentcommand, at least one contact command, and contact status.
 13. Themethod according to claim 12 wherein a portion of the capturedinformation is selected to be delivered to the relationship managementsystem based on client-specific preferences.
 14. The method according toclaim 8 wherein the contact is any one or combination of a prospectivecustomer, a customer, an entity related to the client, an entity towhich the client has an obligation, and a person.
 15. A computerreadable medium having computer readable program codes embodied thereinfor causing a computer to function as a connection and interface unitthat exchanges information with a relationship management system, thecomputer readable medium program codes performing functions comprising:bridging first and second communications connections, the firstcommunications connection with an origin, the origin associated with aclient agent, the second communications connection with a destination,the destination associated with a contact; capturing informationassociated with the first and second communications connections;delivering select portions of the communications connection informationin a select format to a relationship management system; receiving picklist information associated with each client from the relationshipmanagement system.
 16. A system for exchanging information with arelationship management system, the system comprising: a connection unitthat bridges first and second communications connections and capturesinformation associated with the first and second communicationsconnections, the first communications connection with an origin, theorigin associated with a client agent, the second communicationsconnection with a destination, the destination associated with acontact, wherein the captured communications connection informationincludes audio file information; and an interface unit that receives thecommunications connection information from the connection unit, anddelivers select portions of the communications connection information ina select format to a relationship management system.
 17. The systemaccording to claim 16 wherein the origin and destination are each acommunications device, the communications device being any one of atelephone, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistance, a pager,a computer, a client interface, a fax device, and a remote computerterminal.
 18. The system according to claim 16 wherein the connectionunit is any one of a telecommunications switch, an Interactive VoiceResponse application, a predictive dialer server, a distributedpredictive dialer system, an electronic mail server, an InstantMessaging server, a Session Initiated Protocol server, a voice-over-IPserver, a Short Message server, and a Multimedia Messaging server. 19.The system according to claim 16 wherein the audio information iscaptured to an audio storage formatted file in response to client agentinput.
 20. The system according to claim 19 wherein the interface unitdelivers to the relationship management system a link to the audio filestored on a remote system.
 21. The system according to claim 19 whereinthe client agent input includes a text command or voice command.
 22. Thesystem according to claim 19 where in the audio information is convertedinto a text file and stored on a remote system.
 23. The system accordingto claim 16 wherein a portion of the captured information is selected tobe delivered to the relationship management system based onclient-specific preferences.
 24. The system according to claim 16wherein the contact is any one or combination of a prospective customer,a customer, an entity related to the client, an entity to which theclient has an obligation, and a person.
 25. A method for exchanginginformation with a relationship management system, the methodcomprising: bridging first and second communications connections, thefirst communications connection with an origin, the origin associatedwith a client agent, the second communications connection with adestination, the destination associated with a contact; capturinginformation associated with the first and second communicationsconnections, wherein the captured communications connection includesaudio information; and delivering select portions of the communicationsconnection information in a select format to a relationship managementsystem.
 26. The method according to claim 25 wherein the origin anddestination are each a communications device, the communications devicebeing any one of a telephone, a cellular telephone, a personal digitalassistance, a pager, a computer, a client interface, and a remotecomputer terminal.
 27. The method according to claim 25 wherein thebridging and capturing are performed by a connection unit, theconnection unit being any one of a telecommunications switch, anInteractive Voice Response application, a predictive dialer server, adistributed predictive dialer system, an electronic mail server, anInstant Messaging server, a Session Initiated Protocol server, avoice-over-IP server, a Short Message server, and a Multimedia Messagingserver.
 28. The method according to claim 25 wherein the audioinformation is captured to an audio storage formatted file in responseto client agent input.
 29. The method of claim 28 further comprisingdelivering to the relationship management system a link to the audiofile stored on a remote system.
 30. The method of claim 28 wherein theclient agent input includes a text command or voice command.
 31. Themethod of claim 25 further comprising converting the audio informationinto a text file for storage on a remote system.
 32. The methodaccording to claim 25 wherein a portion of the captured information isselected to be delivered to the relationship management system based onclient-specific preferences.
 33. The method according to claim 25wherein the contact is any one or combination of a prospective customer,a customer, an entity related to the client, an entity to which theclient has an obligation, and a person.
 34. A computer readable mediumhaving computer readable program codes embodied therein for causing acomputer to function as a connection and interface unit that exchangesinformation with a relationship management system, the computer readablemedium program codes performing functions comprising: bridging first andsecond communications connections, the first communications connectionwith an origin, the origin associated with a client agent, the secondcommunications connection with a destination, the destination associatedwith a contact; capturing information associated with the first andsecond communications connections, wherein the captured communicationsconnection information includes an audio file; and delivering selectportions of the communications connection information in a select formatto a relationship management system.